News Scan

Muerte in Madrid

Getting arrested may not be the worse thing that happens to people
stopped by police. Spanish doctors report that some men arrested
may be susceptible to sudden cardiac death. Dr Manuel Selles, of
the Hospital Gregorio Maranon in Madrid, found 60 cases of healthy
young people dying within 24 hours of being arrested in the past
decade. All but one were men, with a mean age of 33. Almost 20 died
where they were arrested. None were involved in any documented
police brutality. Autopsies listed them as unexplained deaths.
Selles hypothesised that under stress, their blood pressure and
heart rates surged, while a rush of chemicals including adrenaline
may have caused arteries to constrict. AP

Planetary pothole

After a year exploring an 800-metre crater, NASA's Mars rover,
Opportunity, has climbed out again. Opportunity emerged by
following the wheel tracks it left on driving into Victoria Crater
last September. "The rover is back on flat ground," Paolo Bellutta,
an engineer who drives Opportunity, announced. The rover was able
to study deep rock layers that were exposed when a meteorite
blasted the crater eons ago. It will next study rocks that may have
been thrown from impacts that dug craters too distant for it to
reach.

Turtles' natural selection

Marine turtles nesting on natural beaches are likely to have higher
evolutionary fitness than turtles that nest on developed beaches,
new research has found. David Pike, a University of Sydney
biological sciences PhD student, has found that two marine turtle
species, loggerheads (pictured) and green turtles, produce more
young nesting on natural beaches, compared with man-made beaches.
Females that successfully produce more young "will have higher
lifetime reproductive success than females of the same species who
produce fewer offspring", said Pike, whose findings appear in the
journal Biology Letters.

Rats in a sinking ship

The remains of the earliest known rodent to stow away on a ship
have been found, reports New Scientist. The jaw of a house
mouse has been identified in sediment from a ship that sank off
Turkey 3500 years ago by Thomas Cucchi, a University of Durham
archeologist. Scientists believe the find may give clues to the
route of the ship, which sank with ebony, ivory, silver and gold
aboard.

Reactor heads to work

Australia's nuclear reactor, OPAL, has taken another step towards
full operation. The Lucas Heights research reactor returned to full
power in May after being shut down for 10 months by a uranium fuel
problem. Five of OPAL's seven science instruments have received
their first neutrons from the reactor, confirming they are working.
Four, named Echidna, Wombat, Koala and Kowari, are for materials
research and the fifth, Platypus, is for organic research at
molecular levels. Quokka, which will focus on food science, and
Taipan, for researching superconductivity, will be tested in the
next few weeks.